Matthew 5:38-43: Greater than the Haters

We have recently moved to Port Alberni, BC. It is a great community. We are getting to know people and enjoying experiencing the things that happen in the community. This is one of the great things about a smaller community. Probably, in part, because of this there is only one movie theatre in town; so every week you can see the same movie as everyone else in town, if you want to.

Last week our family went to see Hotel Transylvania 3; simply because I hadn't seen one or two I probably wouldn't have gone without the convincing of my family. It was an excellent movie. It was an excellent show in the way that George Reeves' Superman, Clayton Moore's Lone Ranger, and Adam West's Batman were excellent shows: the good guys were actually good guys.

I have seen so many shows on TV and in the movies this century where the 'good guys' are somewhere between as bad as and worse than the 'bad guys'. I have come to expect that the 'good guys' will seek revenge, torture, maim, and or kill the 'bad guys'. I have tuned in to watch more than one show 5 minutes in and so missed the opening scene that provided the supposed justification for the 'good guys' to commit atrocity after violent act after hatred after unforgiveness.

Because of all of this when Hotel Transylvania 3 was nearing its conclusion, I expected the 'bad guy' to die and the 'good guys' to celebrate his destruction. To my surprise and delight the good guy was actually a good guy and he risked his life an limb to save the antagonist. When questioned about his actions he replied, 'we must be greater than the haters'

This is true in our life too. If we do not forgive our opponents and if we are not better than the bad guys than in reality we may also be the bad guys. However, when we forgive our enemies and pray for those who persecute us then we really will be greater than the haters.

https://salvogesis.blogspot.ca/

More articles, sermons, and papers at
www.sheepspeak.com

Comments

Hosanna! The Triumphal Entry into Holy Week (Matthew 21:1-11)

Today is Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday is when we commemorate the Sunday before Jesus’ death. Jerusalem was occupied then, like it is now; now it is occupied by the Israelis, then it was occupied by the Romans. The Judeans in the first century didn’t like being occupied then any more than the Palestinians like it today. The Romans were harsh, not nearly as brutal as modern Israel, but harsh enough that the first century had their version of … (Remember the suicide bombers of the ‘70s and ‘80s?) …suicide bombers: the Sicarii (zealots), Judean terrorists / revolutionaries would walk into crowds with daggers looking for Romans to kill –. One of Jesus’ followers, Simon, was arguably a Sicarii or zealot. Passover is the commemoration of ancient Israel’s birth as a nation. The Angel of Death passed over Egypt and the nations of Isreal and Judah were created through the Exodus. Passover, in the Roman period, was a time when many people of Judean descent descended upon Jerusalem. I ...

Lanterns (Matthew 25:1-13, Psalm 146)

The topics I chose from our Lenten list for today are “God has rescued us from the Dominion of Darkness”; “He has Freed Us from the Power of Sin”; the Kingdom of God is at hand. Do we believe that? Do we live that? In theology we use the term ‘prolepsis’ to refer to the time when the Kingdom of God begins, which is now, the time between the resurrection of Christ and His return at the eschaton. This is the time in which we are living and as Christians it is our responsibility to be willing instruments of God to display what it means that He has rescued us from the Dominion of Darkness; He has Freed Us from the Power of Sin, that the Kingdom of God is at hand. But do we even actually believe that He has already done this? And if He has why does it not seem that the Sin and Darkness still reign? We know the parable of the bridesmaids (holy ones) in the Bible who needed to keep their lanterns lit – because lit lanterns were to be there when the Bridegroom Jesus returns...

Bah Ram You Shaggy Goat (Daniel 8)

This book is written in a couple of different languages as we have it tod ay. Ch apter 7 that Susan looked at with us is the last Aramaic chapter - if that is on purpose then chapter 7 probably concludes the first section of Daniel rather than beginning the next section but Ch apter 8 that we are looking at today (and everything flowing from it) is obviously connected to Chapter 7 as Da n iel refers to the first dream when relaying the second one. Chronologically speaking, Chapter 8 and Chapter 7 take place before C hapters 5 and 6. In Chapter 5, Babylon falls, Belshazzar is killed and the Persians take over. None of that has happened in Chapter 8 which we are about to read . Verses 1-4 8 In the third year of King Belshazzar’s reign, I, Daniel, had a vision, after the one that had already appeared to me. 2 In my ...

Salvogesis

Search This Blog